The Nisseki Maru ( Japanese日 石 丸 or in Hiragana に っ せ き ま る ) was an oil tanker that was put into service on September 8, 1971. It was an Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC) and the largest oil tanker in the world when it entered service.
The ship was ordered in 1968 by the Japanese shipping company Tokyo Tanker KK. The Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries shipyard in Kure built a total of 48,000 tons of normal strength shipbuilding steel in plate thicknesses of up to 33.5 mm and launched the ship with hull number 2168 on April 20, 1971. After around ten months of construction, the shipyard delivered the ship to its clients on September 8, 1971.
The Nisseki Maru had an aft propulsion system and an aft bridge house. The silhouette of the tanker was determined by two slender chimneys arranged side by side behind the deckhouse. The drive consisted of two 20,000 HP steam turbines made by the shipyard , which acted on a single fixed propeller via a gearbox. At 90% continuous power, the Nisseki Maru consumed around 190 tons of fuel per day. Four turbine-driven pumps with 5000 m³ pumping capacity per hour and one pump with 350 m³ / h pumping capacity were available for loading and unloading the 17 cargo tanks.
Initially, due to the very large draft, the ship could only unload at the Kiire Terminal in Kagoshima Bay when fully loaded. In 1984 the JX Tanker Company from Yokohama took over the ship and in 1985 it was sold to Teraoka Iron Works in Hakodate for demolition against the background of the global tanker crisis, where it was scrapped on May 31, 1985.
